Ionis Chief Scientific Officer Frank Bennett receives Lifetime Achievement Award from Oligonucleotide Therapeutics Society

CARLSBAD, Calif., Oct. 1, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: IONS), the leader in antisense therapeutics, announced today that Frank Bennett, Ph.D., Ionis’ executive vice president and chief scientific officer, has been awarded the 2020 Lifetime Achievement Award by the Oligonucleotide Therapeutics Society (OTS). Dr. Bennett was recognized by the OTS Award Committee for his important contributions to basic science and for being instrumental in the development of antisense oligonucleotide drugs that modulate splicing to correct severe genetic disease.

A founding member of Ionis, Dr. Bennett is responsible for continuing to advance antisense technology and expanding Ionis’ drug discovery platform. He is also the franchise leader for neurological programs at Ionis. Dr. Bennett is a co-recipient of the 2019 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences for his contributions to the discovery and development of SPINRAZA^® (nusinersen) and a co-recipient of the inaugural Healy Center International Prize for Innovation in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Dr. Bennett also received the 2018 Hereditary Disease Foundation’s (HDF) Leslie Gehry Brenner Prize for Innovation in Science for his leadership and continued commitment to developing antisense therapies for Huntington’s disease. He has been involved in the development of antisense oligonucleotides as therapeutic agents, including research on the application of oligonucleotides for inflammatory, neurodegenerative diseases and cancer, oligonucleotide delivery, pharmacokinetics and medicinal chemistry.

“I am deeply honored and humbled to be recognized by the Oligonucleotide Therapeutics Society with the Lifetime Achievement Award. It represents an affirmation, not for me as an individual, but for everyone at Ionis who is committed to advancing science and to delivering transformative medicines to the patients who depend on us,” said Dr. Bennett.

Dr. Bennett will deliver his award lecture at the OTS 2021 meeting.

OTS also recognized research by Ionis scientists with the Paper of the Year Award. Frank Rigo, Ph.D., vice president, functional genomics and drug discovery, Sagar Damle, Ph.D., director, functional genomics and Karen Ling, research fellow, neuroscience drug discovery, were the authors of Directed RNase H cleavage of nascent transcripts causes transcription termination, which uncovers a new antisense mechanism and highlights Ionis’ commitment to remain leaders in RNA-targeted therapeutics.

About Ionis Pharmaceuticals
As the leader in RNA-targeted drug discovery and development, Ionis has created an efficient, broadly applicable, drug discovery platform called antisense technology that can treat diseases where no other therapeutic approaches have proven effective. Our drug discovery platform has served as a springboard for actionable promise and realized hope for patients with unmet needs. We created the first and only approved treatment for all patients, children and adults with spinal muscular atrophy as well as the world’s first RNA-targeted therapeutic approved for the treatment of polyneuropathy in adults with hereditary transthyretin amyloidosis. Our sights are set on all the patients we have yet to reach with a pipeline of more than 40 novel medicines designed to potentially treat a broad range of disease, including neurological, cardio-renal, metabolic, infectious, and pulmonary diseases.

To learn more about Ionis visit www.ionispharma.com or follow us on twitter @ionispharma.

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SOURCE Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc.